1996–97 Ukrainian First League

Ukrainian First League
Season	1996–97
Champions	Metalurh Donetsk
Promoted	Metalurh Mariupol
Relegated	Odesa; Krystal Chortkiv; Podillya Khmelnytskyi; Veres Rivne
Top goalscorer	(22) Oleksiy Antyukhin (Dynamo-2 Kyiv)
	← 1995–96 1997–98 →

1996–97 Ukrainian First League was the sixth season of the Ukrainian First League which was won by Metalurh Donetsk. The season started on August 4, 1996, and finished on June 20, 1997.

Promotion and relegation

Promoted teams

Three clubs promoted from the 1995–96 Ukrainian Second League.

Group A

FC CSKA Kyiv – champion (returning after four seasons, previously in 1992 as SKA Kyiv)

Group B

FC Metalurh Mariupol – champion (returning after four seasons, previously in 1992 as FC Azovets Mariupol)
FC Metalurh Donetsk – promotion play-off (debut)

Relegated teams

Three clubs were relegated from the 1995-96 Ukrainian Top League:

SC Mykolaiv – 16th place (returning after two seasons, previously in 1994-95 as FC Evis Mykolaiv)
FC Volyn Lutsk – 17th place (debut)
FC Zorya Luhansk – 18th place (debut)

Renamed teams

FC Zakarpattia Uzhhorod changed its name to FC Verkhovyna Uzhhorod before the season.
FC CSKA Kyiv changed its name to FC CSKA-2 Kyiv before the season since becoming the farm team of the Borysfen-CSKA merger.
FC Dnipro Cherkasy changed its name to FC Cherkasy during the winter break.

Teams

In 1996-97 season, the Ukrainian First League consists of the following teams:

Locations of teams in First League

Club	City	Stadium	Coach	Replaced coach(es)
Metalist Kharkiv	Kharkiv	Metalist Stadium	Mykhailo Fomenko	Viktor Udovenko
Veres Rivne	Rivne	Avanhard Stadium	Viacheslav Kobeletsky
Poligraftechnika Olexandria	Oleksandriya	Olimp Stadium	Yuriy Koval	Anatoliy Buznyk
Podillya Khmelnytskyi	Khmelnytskyi Krasyliv	Podillya Stadium Yunist Stadium	Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi	Volodymyr Bulhakov
Krystal Chortkiv	Chortkiv	Kharchovyk Stadium	V.Ivehesh	Ivan Hamaliy
Lviv	Lviv	Yunist Stadium	Stepan Yurchyshyn
Dynamo-2 Kyiv	Kyiv	Dynamo Stadium	Volodymyr Onyshchenko
Yavir Krasnopillia	Krasnopillya	Kolos Stadium Yavir Stadium	Valeriy Dushkov
Stal Alchevsk	Alchevsk	Stal Stadium	Anatoliy Volobuyev
Dnipro Cherkasy	Cherkasy	Central Stadium Spartak Stadium	Semen Osynovskyi	Ihor Chupryna
Bazhanovets Makiivka	Makiivka	Avanhard Stadium	Viktor Pyshchev
Bukovyna Chernivtsi	Chernivtsi	Bukovyna Stadium	V.Bohuslavsky	Yukhym Shkolnykov
Khimik Zhytomyr	Zhytomyr	City Stadium	Hryhoriy Ishchenko	V.Veber
Naftovyk Okhtyrka	Okhtyrka	Naftovyk Stadium	Vasyl Yermak	Oleksandr Dovbiy
Metalurh Nikopol	Nikopol	Elektrometalurh Stadium	Hryhoriy Verzhelenko
Volyn Lutsk	Lutsk	Avanhard Stadium	A.Radchenko
Zakarpattia Uzhhorod	Uzhhorod	Avanhard Stadium	Oleksandr Holokolosov Sr.	Matviy Bobal
Zorya Luhansk	Luhansk	Avanhard Stadium	A.Shakun	Anatoliy Kuksov
CSKA-2 Kyiv	Kyiv	CSKA Stadium	A.Shtelin	A.Petrakov
Khimik Severodonetsk	Sieverodonetsk	Khimik Stadium	Yuriy Koval	Yuriy Vankevych
Odesa	Odesa	SKA Stadium	Serhiy Marusyn
SC Mykolaiv	Mykolaiv	Central Stadium	Anatoliy Zayaev	Yevhen Kucherevsky
Metalurh Donetsk	Donetsk	Shakhtar Stadium	Yevhen Korol
Metalurh Mariupol	Mariupol	Azovstal Stadium	Yuriy Pohrebnyak

Final table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Metalurh Donetsk (C, P)	46	32	5	9	77	39	+38	101	Promoted to Vyshcha Liha
2	Dynamo-2 Kyiv	46	29	8	9	91	33	+58	95
3	Metalurh Mariupol (P)	46	29	6	11	92	56	+36	93	Promoted to Vyshcha Liha
4	Volyn Lutsk	46	26	5	15	62	47	+15	83
5	Naftovyk Okhtyrka	46	25	6	15	76	43	+33	81
6	Stal Alchevsk	46	23	9	14	76	43	+33	78
7	SC Mykolaiv	46	21	12	13	66	37	+29	75
8	FC Lviv	46	20	9	17	56	43	+13	69
9	Bukovyna Chernivtsi	46	19	10	17	64	51	+13	67
10	Polihraftekhnika Oleksandria	46	17	14	15	55	51	+4	65
11	Metalurh Nikopol	46	20	4	22	60	66	−6	64
12	Metalist Kharkiv	46	18	9	19	55	53	+2	63
13	Yavir Krasnopillia	46	18	7	21	61	61	0	61
14	Khimik Severodonetsk	46	16	11	19	64	62	+2	59
15	Verkhovyna Uzhhorod	46	17	7	22	56	78	−22	58
16	Shakhtar Makiivka	46	15	11	20	55	62	−7	56
17	FC Cherkasy	46	16	7	23	46	78	−32	55
18	Khimik Zhytomyr	46	15	10	21	44	61	−17	55
19	CSKA-2 Kyiv	46	15	9	22	37	56	−19	54
20	Zoria Luhansk	46	16	5	25	58	84	−26	53
21	SC Odesa (R)	46	14	8	24	47	79	−32	50	Relegated to Second League
22	Podillia Khmelnytskyi (R)	46	11	13	22	40	66	−26	46
23	Veres Rivne (R)	46	11	9	26	36	79	−43	42
24	Krystal Chortkiv (R)	46	9	6	31	31	77	−46	33

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Persha Liha 1996-97 Winners
FC Metalurh Donetsk First title

Top scorers

Statistics are taken from here.^[1]

	Scorer	Goals (Pen.)	Team
1	Oleksiy Antiukhin	22 (7)	Dynamo-2 Kyiv
2	Yuriy Hetman	21 (1)	Metalurh Mariupol
3	Oleksandr Sevidov	20	Metalurh Donetsk
4	Viktor Diak	18 (10)	Shakhtar Makiivka
5	Kostyantyn Pinchuk	16 (12)	Metalurh Mariupol
6	Yevhen Sonin	15 (3)	SC Mykolaiv
7	Oleksandr Ostashov	14	Metalurh D. / Stal
7	Oleh Babenko	14 (1)	Khimik Severodonetsk
9	Oleksandr Karabuta	13	Metalist Kharkiv
9	Borys Shurshyn	13 (2)	Yavir Krasnopillya

References

^ Statistics (in Russian)

[1] Statistics (in Russian)

[1]